Distribution systems are used, inter alia, for conveying bulk food products such as crisps, cornflakes and similar products of relatively low mass and irregular shape from a source such as an oven to a number of processing points at which the product is, for example, packaged by packing machines which dispense metered quantities of the product of successively presented packages or containers.
One of the problems associated with such distribution systems is ensuring that the supply of food products is sufficient to meet the demand at all of the processing points since failure to do so can result in product starvation at the processing points and consequent production of underweight packages. One known form of distribution system attempts to solve this problem by conveying the food product in a closed path along which the various processing points are located. Product which is not immediately used continues to be conveyed along the closed path until eventually required. A disadvantage of this system is that food products such as crisps and cornflakes are quite fragile and the longer the products spend in the distribution system the more likelihood there is of the packaged product containing an unacceptably high level of broken or powdered product. In addition, the products also tend to degrade if left exposed to the air for any appreciable time.
In a further known system quantities of product are amassed at each processing point and dropped through an opened gate into a storage hopper of a packaging machine at the processing point. A disadvantage of this system is that the sudden discharging of a large quantity of product into the packaging machine hopper can effect the accuracy of the machine and result in large variations in the quantity of product metered to each package. Since such machines have to be set to ensure that the metered quantity of product does not fall below the quantity specified on the package the metered quantity can be as much as 50% greater than the specified quantity which is clearly undesirable.